Missed the Visitors

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Wednesday, October 18, 1911: Grandma and Aunt Alice were here today, but I didn’t get to see them because they had gone when I got home from school. We had a review in Latin today. An easy examination it was.

Grandma’s Aunt Alice was her mother’s (Phoebe Derr Muffly) sister. She was married to John Krumm and lived in Turbotville.

Alice is referred to as Mary Alice in official records, so she apparently went by her middle name. Based on information in the 1910 census on the Family Search website, she would have been 54-years-old in 1911 and was 5 years older than Phoebe.

Alice’s and Phoebe’s mother –and Grandma’s grandmother– was Sarah Derr. Sarah also lived in Turbotville, and was 70-years-old in 1911.

Turbotville is located about 4 miles northeast of the Muffly farm. The women may have come by horse and buggy—or may have taken the train. The Susquehanna, Bloomsburg, and Berwick Railroad provided passenger service to Turbotville—and there was a flag stop at a feed mill near the Muffly’s.

I agree–from my great-great grandfather’s long beard to the hat jauntily thrown on the ground you can get a sense of the individuals’ personalities. I’ve wondered if the hat was a prop–but I tend to think not.

An aside–Last winter our family got a family photo taken. My oldest son remembered this photo and wanted to put his hat on the floor in the foreground to show his personality. (The rest of the family vetoed the idea.)